Tag Archive for Dr Caroline Leaf

NOTHING guarantees weight gain better than Diets. Nothing. The studies show that if you go on a diet, there’s a 95 – 99% chance you’ll gain back all the weight you lost, and for many, a few pounds extra. Unfortunately, the belief that dieting can make you skinny is so engrained in the psyche, that it’s a hard concept to set aside. Low calorie, low fat foods just sound like they should make us thin, right? Wrong, wrong wrong wrong.

( PS – that pic on the left – that’s my husband Mark, who’s 50, after he finished a Tough Mudder two days ago. Here’s a link to his Man Post. )

Interesting facts:

1) Small portions and diet sized meals leave you hungry; hunger always leads to overeating. We’re NOT designed to enjoy or tolerate hunger, it goes against our normal survival instinct and our brain won’t allow it. Unfortunately, since the Diet Industry was born, and people dove right into mini meals of processed diet food with maybe a boring side of steamed broccoli, people can’t quit eating. A whole slew of hormones and chemicals that drive us to literally seek out food are coursing through our bodies.

2) Wheat is an Opiate; there’s a protein in wheat called GLIADIN; gliadin binds to the opiate receptors of the brain, but it doesn’t make us high. It makes us hungry. Has wheat always had this effect? No. Just since the 1970s when geneticists created modern Semi-Dwarf, high yield wheat. Now, it’s the only wheat available. So those low calorie, low fat crackers/pretzels/tortillas that are touted as a safe snack because they’re low in fat and calories?? They just send your blood sugar and insulin way up (inflammation and belly fat), and trigger addiction in the brain. They don’t make you thin.

2) Gluten-Free food products are made with High Glycemic flours from GRAINS which convert to blood sugar and send your insulin skyrocketing. Excess blood sugar is EASILY and quickly converted to Body Fat (triglycerides). Drop the idea the “Gluten-Free” products = healthy and skinny. They don’t.

4) People who eat Low Fat Dairy weigh more and are sicker than people who eat Full Fat Dairy. This has been proven in study after study after study. The reasons are profuse; but know that there are crucial fatty acids in dairy that inhibit cancer, insulin resistance, weight gain and more. Quit feeding the skim to your kids, and don’t delude yourself into thinking diet ice cream or low fat cheese will take off the pounds. Read this link for more information.

5) There’s actually Crucial Nutrients in ALL Real Whole Food that our cells use to be healthy and functioning and normal. Diet foods loaded with carbs, artificial sugars, chemicals and bad fats RUIN OUR CELLS. The cells don’t form correctly, they don’t function correctly, they don’t communicate correctly when they don’t have their necessary nutrients.

There’s been so much bad information in the past 50 years and all we have to do is look around and use common sense to see that Main Stream Diet Dogma is a complete failure. The Diet Industry is a Business; it’s out to make money by promising us Magic that will help us lose weight. The reality is that dieting has made us bigger than ever, and very sick:

Heart Disease, Cancer, and Diabetes numbers are out of control; livers have become fatty and dysfunctional due to constant high blood sugars and chemicals; thyroid function has decreased from yo-yo diets; sex hormones are totally askew thanks to chemicals and sugar that create an Estrogen Dominant environment in both men and women; muscle tissue is regularly consumed for energy slowing down metabolism even more; neurotransmitter balance in our gut and brain is totally out out of whack; and we have more people burning predominantly SUGAR for fuel as opposed to FAT for fuel than ever. (That’s why so many people work out for HOURS and can’t lose weight, they never tap into their fat stores!)

What’s the Solution?

Real Whole Foods. Too simple? It is. Sleep, movement, and stress management are just as important. But we’re talking about food here.

For our body to hum, we need NORMAL cells, that have NORMAL function and NORMAL communication. We’re a Chemistry Set, not a Math Equation. Food is medicine, or food is poison, honest. Sugar, grains, and chemicals are toxic for our body, even when they’re packaged in “diet food”.

Good fats (from CLEAN animal sources, butter, coconut oil, olive oil, pastured dairy, avocado oil) are GOOD for us: every cell in our body incorporates fats and cholesterol into it’s membrane so that it’s function and communication can be NORMAL. Fats comprise our sex hormones, and anti-inflammatory hormones; cholesterol is an anti-oxidant and healing molecule. Our brain is 60-70% fat and cholesterol!!

One of the best things about fat, other than it tastes delicious and keeps us full, is that there NO INSULIN RESPONSE. None.

Insulin drives disease and inflammation, we need a tiny bit released from the pancreas to be healthy, but American’s ( and now much of the world) don’t have a tiny bit coursing through their body; they have way too much. Inflammatory conditions are RAMPANT, even in our children.

Good fats, clean proteins, and TONS of vegetables need to be the bulk of our diet. Some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some good whole fat dairy if you tolerate that. Eat 3 meals a day and quit snacking.Snacking is horrible for blood sugar, which drives insulin, which drives inflammation.

This is the Magic Formula, honest.

After saying all this, I want to acknowledge how difficult it is to rid the mind of deeply entrenched beliefs ( low fat/ low cal foods are good for me ) that have now led to physical addictions (grains, sugars, and chemicals are absolutely addictive).

This is why you have to work on your Mind if you want to change you Body. The Mind has to come first, because you’re controlled by your subconscious thoughts. What to do?

2) Focus on implanting New Thoughts, which are productive and positive, into your brain. Most of us run on Auto-Pilot, ….Stop! Auto-Pilot’s a terrible way to go through life; look at the results you’ve been getting from your habits and patterns and beliefs so far. Evaluate. There’s ALWAYS room for improvement and change, we’re never finished ( til we’re actually “finished”).

Read my last two Posts; there’s links to books and You Tubes on creating new thoughts and patterns. And remember my new favorite phrase: You can’t have a “10” body without a “10” mind.

In my last Post, I said you can’t have a “10” life/body without having a “10” mind. Not my quote, but I LOVE it!

What would make a mind a 10?

– That you’ve PRACTICED right thinking so diligently, that there’s very little stress involved in making healthy choices.

– That most of your CHOSEN thoughts lead to Positive Long Term Benefits.

– That instant gratification is NOT a practice you engage in, or even think about very often.

– That you’re able to “capture” any thoughts that are unproductive, or contrary to our health or normal weight, and reword them so that they are productive.

Not a week goes by that I don’t get an email detailing someone’s weight or health issues, and often it includes statements like, ” I know I shouldn’t eat _____, but sometimes I can’t help it.” Or, “I know I should not snack/get to bed earlier/not drink so much/remember to take my supplements/etc”

I’ve been there. I struggled for decades with issues I KNEW could be resolved if I gave up grains, sugar, and artificial sweeteners, but honestly, I seriously couldn’t imagine a life without them. One part of my brain understood all the reasons they’re not good for me, but another part of my brain was aghast, sad, depressed, and pretty determined to get what it wanted. That part of the brain was the winner for years.

“How do you live without grains or sugar?” “How do you not snack?” I’ve heard these questions a million times, 500,000 times from MYSELF to Myself. For a long time, I thought Will Power was the answer. It’s not. All of us have a very tiny, finite supply of Will Power; and if you DO successfully muster some up, there’s usually a “rebound effect”. That’s best illustrated by the Diet example: try to eat Low Cal/Low Fat for a few days, and you’ll rebound with a Binge.

That’s why statistically, almost 100% of EVERYONE who goes on a diet gains their weight back. It’s the same for people with health issues who try to muscle their way through food cravings that impact their heart/headaches/joints/bloat/blood sugar etc: the rebound effect happens, even when the health issue is serious and advanced.

Rebound even happens when you can’t stand yourself for giving in over and over.

What’s the answer? You’ve Got To Work On Your Mind, because your thoughts control your actions.

Remember that podcast by Hal Elrod I mentioned the other day? Listen to it. He gives great advice on training your mind to work for you, and not against you. He quotes Jim Rohn: “Your level of success will NOT exceed your level of personal development.”

Have you given much thought to your thoughts? Because most people haven’t. Most people don’t even realize their thoughts are a choice. If your thoughts are statements about what you could never do ( I could NEVER give up sugar/wine/pasta/cereal/bread/diet coke…I could NEVER take that class, ..I HATE cooking, .. I’m TOO busy to pack…), then your thinking has doomed you when it comes to your Health and your Weight.

What if every time a counter productive thought popped in our head, we captured it, and changed it? We HAVE to do that, because our thoughts become actions, always.

Real Health only happens with CONSISTENT productive habits. Not most of the time, not 80/20, not weekdays or when we have time. Losing weight, sleeping well, great energy, lowering blood sugar, ridding our arteries of plaque, supplying our skin with the nutrients it needs to look good, …… happens when we so firmly wrap our mind around the ACTION STEPS necessary that consistency is second nature, instead of an enormous effort.

Here’s another amazing source: Dr. Caroline Leaf. Dr. Leaf is a cognitive neuroscientist with a PhD in Communication Pathology specializing in Neuropsychology. HOLY COW IS THIS WOMAN AN AMAZING SPEAKER. She’s all about the SCIENCE of Quantum Physics, which is the SCIENCE of how our Thoughts Control Our Brain on a PHYSICAL LEVEL. Thanks to MRIs, and new blood tests that look at different neurotransmitters, and more, scientists have so much insight into how the brain actually works. Hint: it never stops changing; and we have power over those changes.

If you’ve been trying for years to diet or exercise and had no lasting results, open your eyes. It’s your Brain you need to change. Invest time and energy on your THOUGHTS, and you will FINALLY have the body and health that you want.

Critical Resources:

http://drleaf.com/about/toxic-thoughts/

YouTube – this is LIFE CHANGING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZczIP_79jXs